The final episodes rounding out “The Walking Dead: Dead City” season one premiered on July 23, leaving audiences reflecting on their feelings for AMC’s first post-”The Walking Dead” era spin-off.
As stated in the Texan’s review of the pilot episode, the shining gem of “The Walking Dead: Dead City” comes from Lauren Cohan and Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s respective performances as Maggie and Negan. Considering that the showrunners wanted to craft a more character driven spin-off show for “The Walking Dead,” they chose the perfect characters to explore. Maggie’s character arc after losing her husband Glenn (Steven Yeun) to Negan felt fully realized in the original show. Her hatred toward Negan continues into “Dead City” and culminates in a very emotional fight sequence that ends with Negan explaining to her that no matter what she says or does, there’s always going to be a part of her that wants Negan dead for what he did. These types of real character conversations permeate throughout “Dead City’s” story, making it compelling despite some minor moments where things felt drawn out to increase each episode’s runtime.
“The Walking Dead: Dead City’s” cinematography, done by Terry Stacey and Vanessa Joy Smith, feels like a new take on the show’s typical drab color palette. The main show dealt with a lot of worn down textures, including browns and beiges that resemble a dry apocalyptic world. “Dead City” utilizes that same palette, but more frequently uses cooler tones like greens and blues to give a distinct feeling to the new Manhattan setting. The colors work incredibly well and simultaneously retain “The Walking Dead” feel while delivering a unique look. The show also features some fun cinematic setups, like a shot of a crumbling Statue of Liberty and stylized closeups on the walkers threatening the protagonists. Overall, it’s a visual treat.
Notoriously, “The Walking Dead” suffered a dropoff in quality and viewership around season seven when the show shifted the main villains from walkers to other people. “The Walking Dead: Dead City” feels like a step in the right direction for the franchise, despite it retaining some of the issues the latter seasons of the mainline show harbored, such as too large of an ensemble cast and not enough walker sequences. That being said, when the writing for different characters and the walker sequences are at their best, it’s fresh and non-repetitive, leaving audiences thrilled for the outcome of the story.
If “The Walking Dead” universe plans to continue making spin-off after spin-off utilizing the main show’s characters, “The Walking Dead: Dead City” serves as a good first attempt in the post-mainline show era. Ex-fans and current fans of the original show will find a lot to enjoy in this Manhattan adventure, but overall it doesn’t do much to bring in a new audience and continue growing “The Walking Dead” fanbase.
3 crumbling Statues of Liberty out of 5
